I have just finished Reus a few days ago (got all Gold Challenges and all resources unlocked) and I thoroughly enjoyed my time playing. I was afraid of the early game becoming too repetitive after a few dozen games but it's not too much of a problem and the rest of the game is very much fun. So congrats to Abbey Games for managing this, I'm sure it wasn't easy to get the right feeling for the flow of the game.
Anyway, after spending more than 60 hours on the game, I feel I have a good grasp on the mechanics and I have a few questions for the team about some design decisions. I understand if you do not wish to discuss this on the forum, I hope to at least spark some discussion with the other players.
Resources and Aspects
My first question is about the aspects unlocking on the Giants through the Ambassadors. I find it frustrating that, for some Giants, it is very easy to know which Ambassadors to take in order to have a good all-around Giant, but for others, there is no real optimal choice (or at least, several good choices). Let me explain this in more detail :
- First, let's assume that the priority goes to the leveling of Resources over Aspects. Ideally, you want all your Giants to have Level 3 resources (so Domestic Animals for the Ocean Giant, Fruit Plants for the Forest Giants etc) because they provide a lot of stats, even with low-level Aspects, whereas high-level aspects with low-level resources dont provide much stats.
- I'll start with the Forest Giant, which is the most straightforward. To get Fruit Plants level 3, you need 2 Forest Ambassadors and 2 Any. To get Leaf Aspect level 3, you need 1 Swamp, 1 Forest and 2 Any. To get Fruit Aspect level 3, you need 3 Forest and 1 Any. To get Hunt Aspect level 3, you need 2 Desert and 2 Any. So you are left with two choices : either FFFS (3 Forest and 1 Swamp) or FFDD (2 Forest and 2 Desert). FFFS will give you Fruit Plants, Leaf Aspect and Fruit Aspect level 3. FFDD will give you Fruit Plants and Hunt Aspect level 3. Both these options are good, depending on your game.
- Next, the Ocean Giant. To get Domestic Animals level 3, you need SAAA. Growth Aspect requires DDDA, Herd Aspect requires SSSA and Crystal Aspect requires FFFA. So technically you could get Dometics Animals level 3 and any of the three aspects by going SDDD (for Growth), SFFF (for Crystal) and SSSA (for Herd). However, the Ocean Giant Monsoon ability is so strong that I feel one Desert Ambassador is, if not mandatory, at least VERY advised. So basically, the two configurations that you will use most of the time are SSSD and SDDD. So, the Crystal Aspect is very little used.
- The Mountain Giant possess two ressources : Precious Minerals, for which you need DDAA and Advanced Minerals, which require SDAA. Exotic Aspect requires FFAA, Noble Aspect DDDA and Seismic Aspect SSAA. So, in order to have both resources level 3, you need at least DDSA. The last ambassador will decide which path you want to go : Wealth with a Desert Ambassador that will give you Noble Aspect level 3 with DDDS, or Tech with a Swamp Ambassador that will give you Seismic Aspect level 3 with DDSS. In any way, Exotic Aspect is very seldom used because you'd need 2 Forest Ambassadors (even for the level 2 Aspect), which is possible only with FFDD (so Advanced Minerals will not be level 3) or FFDS (so Precious Minerals will not be level 3) : any of these two combinations is too detrimental to be really viable in most games, in my opinion.
- Finally, the Swamp Giant also possess two resources : Herbs, for which you need FSAA and Exotic Animals, which require DSAA. Toxic Aspect requires SSSA, Predator Aspect DDAA and Reaction Aspect FFAA. So you need at least FSDA for the resources, which means that you cannot have Toxic Aspect level 3 (or one of the two resources will stay level 1 with SSSD or SSSF). That leaves two possible combinations FSDD for Herbs, Exotics Animals and Predator Aspect level 3 or FSDF for Herbs, Exotics Animals and Reaction Aspect level 3.
I'd then be interested in knowing why some Aspects are designed this way. On the Moutain Giant, if the Exotic Aspect were FAAA, you could go DDSF and have both Minerals level 3 and Exotic Aspect level 3, but not Noble and Seismic, which would make it more interesting.
Abilities
My second question concerns the abilities of the Giants :
- As I mentioned earlier, the Ocean Geant's Monsoon ability is very very strong. You need DAAA to level it to 3. The other ability is useful but not as much. You need FFAA in order to level it to 3, so it can be used if you are going for the Crystal Aspect with FFFS but not in most games.
- The Forest Giant also has two abilities : Fertility Boost, for which you need FDAA (1 Forest, 1 Desert, 2 Any) and which is not a bad ability, and Migrate, for which you need SSAA, and which is really not worth it in my opinion. You can get Fertility Boost level 3 with FFDD but you cannot get Migrate level 3 with any of the two good configurations I mentioned. It isn't actually a problem because I find Migrate very weak. I may have used it twice in total, and that was when I was doing the Swamp Challenge. I don't know what could be done to have more incentive about using it,maybe make the migration instant instead of having to walk around the map.
- Lastly, the abilities for the Mountain and Swamp Giants are useful in time of war with the Humans, especially Muck Bomb, the Swamp Giant's ability. You need SSAA to max it(but SAAA still gives you level 2) and it is also useful to destroy unwanted projects. I find both these abilities pretty balanced.
Projects
One last thing that I find frustrating is the placement of the projects. Some projects have a specialization that gives bonuses for specific Resources next to the Project or withing a range of 2 of the Project. While this seems interesting because it forces the player to think about how he will place his Resources in order to make the most out of this, it happens often that the Project is built right next to the Village or to another Project, which negates a lot of the possible bonus. Is there any way as a player to circumvent this phenomenon ? And if not, do you think it would be better to allow the Project to spawn further away from existing buildings in order to have more leeway ?
Anyway, thanks for reading, I hope it is not too clustered, I can put some colours in if that makes it more readable.